Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/305

§ 834. But, as a danger of an opposite sort required equally to be guarded against, a smaller number is authorized to adjourn from day to day, thus to prevent a legal dissolution of the body, and also to compel the attendance of absent members.^[1] Thus, the interests of the nation, and the despatch of business, are not subject to the caprice, or perversity, or negligence of the minority. It was a defect in the articles of confederation, sometimes productive of great public mischief, that no vote, except for an adjournment, could be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the states;^[2] and no power of compelling the attendance of the requisite number existed.

---

1. Journal of Convention, 218, 242; 4 Instit. 43, 49.
2. Confederation, art. 9; 1 Elliot's Debates, 44, 45; The Federalist, No. 22.

vol. ii.38